Stacy Horn

I’m freaked out because I found out yesterday that one of my oldest friends had a heart attack and died over the weekend.  It’s breaking my heart to type that.  There’s so much I want to say, and at the same time I don’t feel like saying any of it.  Here is Aly in the early 80’s, when we were all young and just starting out in life and I was sure he’d be a rock star.  He should have been.  But you know life.

I missed most of the debate due to my choir rehearsal, but I just saw that once again McCain used Obama’s funding request for a projector for the Adler Planetarium as example of wasteful spending.

The people at Cosmic Variance responded to that best.  First they posted the text from Obama’s FY08 funding request:

Adler Planetarium, to support replacement of its projector and related equipment, $3,000,000:

One of its most popular attractions and teaching tools at the Adler Planetarium is the Sky Theater. The projection equipment in this theater is 40 years old, and is no longer supported with parts or service by the manufacturer. It has begun to fail, leaving the theater dark and groups of school students and other interested museum-goers without this very valuable and exciting learning experience.

From the Cosmic Variance post:

“Sorry, but replacing 40 year old equipment at one of the leading science education facilities in this country (the Adler Planetarium is located in downtown Chicago and is the oldest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere in existence today) is one of the best investments in the future that I can think of. I’ve always equated planetariums with science education – an area where the US seems to be lacking. In fact, the state-funded university where I was an undergraduate had one and its projection equipment was less than 40 years old. In fact, when I was in the 4th grade, my class took a field trip to the McDonnell Planetarium in Forest Park. It was one of the coolest things I did in grade school (well, that and the trip to see the Egyptian mummies) and I remember it to this day.”

(The picture is from the New York Times.)

I just got this gorgeous book in the mail called, When Wanderers Cease to Roam, by Vivian Swift (who I met at a party, we have the same agent).

I haven’t read it yet, but I flipped through it and fell in love with the illustrations. The sleeping cat on the luggage is from the cover.

I hope Vivian doesn’t mind that I cut and pasted this from the cover, but by the time I shrink the whole cover to fit into this tiny space you can’t really see this watercolor very well anymore.

The book is like a combination journal and scrapbook, and I am just completely taken with the illustrations.  I love the bugs, and the leaves, and the galoshes and mittens.  I wish I could paint.  I’m so jealous now.  

 
Vivian has a website here, with links to her book and her blog.  The pub date for the book is October 28, so yay Vivian!  Congratulations!

I went.  Now I feel sick as a dog.  I’m watching the end of the debate though, and my man is doing so well I feel hopeful.  I’ll go to sleep a little happier.

Meanwhile, I found this picture on the Tribute Center website.  It’s of West Street in 1885.  I think that building I point out is still there and near me.  So tomorrow, or the next day, I’ll take a “now” shot to compare it to.

I’ve got this cold, and bubonic plague too, I think, and we’re all taking it easy today.  But now I’ve got to decide about going to choir.  Tonight is the night when we don’t sit in voice sections anymore, but sopranos, tenors, basses and altos all mixed up.  It’s when you really feel like you’re harmonizing and part of a whole complex piece of music.  I love it and would hate to miss it.  But my coughing and sniffling might ruin it a little for those around me.

I can’t decide!